Bob Rissetto

If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted? (Email, Webpage)

modulox@hotmail.com is my contact for anyone that wants to write. I checkit regularly. Andhttp://www.bobrissetto.blogspot.com/ hosts some of my work.

What type of tools or media do you use?

Almost everything starts with col-erase for me. I love how loose I can bewith it and build it up and erase and it comes in all sorts of prettycolors. I just dig the feel. It's almost necessary for animation.Speakin' of which, I almost exclusively draw on animation bond. It can takea beating and I can backlight it no problem. I'm actually getting pickyabout it because now I hafta use it at work. I'm a video game conceptartist by day and apparently 8.5 x 11 copy paper just ain't cuttin' it forme... Outside of that, I enjoy experimenting with other traditional media(crayons, oil bars, sharpies) but I'm definitely a digital artist at thecore. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (thanks genetics) and the undo buttondoesn't exist in the real world. A little Photoshop and a TON of Flash.Love Flash to death both for it's animation capabilities and vectorillustration.

Where is the place you would like to work or be an Intern if you had a choice?

Cartoon Network without a doubt. There's some really well designed showsthere. There's always fresh content in the works. Great animation,character driven shows, and supporters of Flash. There's really a lot thatappeals to me about Cartoon Network and what they're doing.

Who do you think are the top character designers out there?

This is really impossible. There's so many people that have really honedtheir craft. Craig Kellman tops my list. I was blown away by his work onMadagascar and really wished his sense of design was even more apparent inthe final movie. And I don't think there's a single weak design in SamuraiJack. Jamie Hewlett has amazed me with all the work he's done with theGorillaz. Such fantastic characters - so well done. The toys are some ofthe best hunks of plastic I own because of his design. John Kricfalusi hasbeen a big inspiration for me for a lot of his characterization. I thinkthe whole Spumco crew were masters. Stephen Silver is unmatched. BruceTimm and Shane Glines are up there too. Katsuhiro Otomo is another one. Ididn't understand a lick of Akira the first time I saw it in high school butI was drawn in by the characters (bad dubbing and all) and how this worldwas very gritty but they were so round and expressive and appealing. Theyseemed real, and I attributed that to the design. Studio Gainax in Japanwas responsible for FLCL which was another list topper for me in terms ofdesign and animation. In the way of anime, nothing is better in my eyes.Tex Avery can make me laugh with a single character. Just how it was drawnwas funny. Not the pose or what he was doing - just the look can make melaugh. And Ed Benedict was huge. I remember actually hating theFlintstones as I was growing up. The limited animation, the "awkward"shapes and what I thought was a crude flatness. It's so charming nowthough! Such simplicity! Ed was the master of asymmetry! Note to self:must buy Flintstones DVDs...

What are some of your favorite character designs which you have seen?

Basically just connect the above names to the projects they've worked on. Ithink the cast of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends takes the cake for meright now. Some of the best. Samurai Jack, Ren and Stimpy, and Tom andJerry will out live them all. Hellboy was introduced to me after watchingDisney's Atlantis and seeing Mignola's designs. I loved everything aboutDisney's Hercules too. Oh and Emperor's New Groove! Those two moviesreally pushed the look of characters in animated features for me. Stuff wasmore graphic was a bit flatter - square fingers, curly kneecaps, straightsand curves really contrasting. I thought Katamari Damacy for thePlayStation 2 was wonderfully unique in terms of it's design. Suchterrifically weird characters. And I still ogled over the mascots and sillycharacters from the 50s and 60s that tried to sell you the latestsugar-fortified cereal. There's just too much to cover with thesequestions!

What is your most favorite subject to draw? And why?

Characters. People. Bipeds. I love to think about posing and expressionbecause I'm an animator too, so designing a character that can do somethingfunny and make a face is a big part of the fun. I love boiling down acomplicated thing (like faces) into some simple shapes and lines. Andtrying to do it different every time is something my brain just loves.

What inspired you to become an Artist?

If I really date this all the way back, I hafta say He-Man. I've alwaysloved toys and I loved cartoons. And with that, I loved to draw. I didn'thave every He-Man toy and the ones I wished I had I just drew with Crayolamarkers. And eventually I'd draw my own scenarios and my own characters. Alittle later, Disney was big with me in Junior High. I loved the art butearly on I was just drawn into the great stories and fun movies. In highschool I got pretty deep into comic books. Jim Lee was golden. X-Men,WildC.A.T.s and all those Image guys. Fresh new characters and brilliantart on shiny paper. This was it. I loved to draw - I'll draw comic booksfor a living. In high school I was determined NOT to go to college. I'lljust keep drawing and land a gig with a comic company. I got pressure fromall sides to continue my education and I folded like a house of cards."I'll try this 3D animation thing" because I still liked Disney and ToyStory was just released. This would be cool. Going to school taught me onething really well - 3D was not for me but animation was. I didn't learnmuch about the industry, or much about the craft, but I started getting verypassionate about everything I drew and animated. Even if it was total crap

What are some of your favorite website links that would be relevant to this Blog?

Man, I hafta tell ya - I don't surf the web much at all. I find it reallyoverwhelming. There's TONS of inspiring stuff out there but I could getstuck looking at links forever. I'll gladly check out a link that's passedalong but I rarely go out for a stroll on the information superhighway. Ihafta say though, if there's one group of people that really inspire me themost it's my friends so I do make an effort to keep up with all of themthrough the blogs. Check 'em out - they're all linked atwww.bobrissetto.blogspot.com.

Anyway, you are a big inspiration to me. I really respect your home grown natural talent - which shows just how far you can go with no formal training - basicly teaching yourself as you observe the world.